Tractates on the Psalms 134.12–134.27

"Bringing up clouds from the end of the earth, he made lightnings for the rain; he brings forth the winds out of his treasuries." Passing over the wonder of the thrones, dominions, principalities and powers, Cherubim and Seraphim, angels and archangels, heaven, earth, sea, and abyss, did God do in these all that he willed in heaven and on earth, in the sea and the abyss: "bringing up clouds from the end of the earth, he made lightnings for the rain; he brings forth the winds out of his treasuries"? Or is this alone the omnipotence of a perfect will in God: that the lands breathe out clouds, that lightnings flash when rains threaten, that winds blow with alternating breaths? But the force of the words and the natures of things refute this opinion of ours. "Bringing up," it says, "clouds from the end of the earth": what does it mean that clouds are brought up, and brought up from the end of the earth? Damp valleys indeed breathe out mists; but valleys are not the end of the earth, nor has anyone thought a mist to be the same as a cloud. Then: "he made lightnings for the rain." What understanding of human sense is here? We sometimes see lightnings without rain, and there is often rain without lightning. Rains do not bring lightnings, nor do lightnings bring down rains. There follows too: "he brings forth the winds out of his treasuries." What understanding of human sense is here? Shall we think that the winds are stored in some hollow and fortified place of treasuries, from which winds are usually brought forth like the most precious portion of a treasure? And since the changes of the winds are usually stirred up frequent, uncertain, and often contrary, does God, so often busy with these things, bring these winds out of the secret place of his riches so that they may change and conflict?

But let these things have been mentioned by me, in my wish to show the force and reasoning of the words, in such a way that it may nonetheless be understood to belong to invisible and almighty power that clouds are brought up from the sea, which is at the end of the earth, that lightnings flash amid rains, and that winds blow from the hidden seats of their breathing. But since the omnipotence of God is not only in these things, nor did he do only in these all that he willed in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in the depths, and since we remember that in things recorded as done bodily spiritual things are signified, we must now show what we ought to understand under these sayings through the power of prophecy.

In that "all that he willed he has done in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in the depths," so far as is permitted to our knowledge, nothing is dearer to God than man. And there is a reason why he is God's special creature. The world was established by a word, but man is made with deliberation, not by a word but by a thought-out work. He is made too in the image of God; by the inbreathing of God he is completed as a living soul. He receives a law, is left to his own will, is set free as lord of all the world, is an inhabitant of paradise, is worthy of the devil's envy, is reserved for mercy after sin, is trained for the knowledge of God through every age of this world, is prepared as a judge of angels. Creation, itself subjected to vanity in hope, awaits his revelation; at his repentance from sin there is the greatest joy among the angels in heaven. This very man, through the mystery of the birth according to the flesh, has been taken up into Christ. Now everywhere the mouth that was formerly irreligious teaches religion; now the body once polluted with acts of sexual immorality is pure by continence; now the mind once blind to the knowledge of God has become Israel. Now envy has advanced into imitation of the good; now drunkenness has burned into fasts; now hatred has been changed into love; now vices have been destroyed in the life of virtues.

The Lord, then, has done all that he willed in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in the depths. For in all these he held nothing before his man, for whose sake even his only-begotten, God, became man; and he did these things "bringing up clouds from the end of the earth." The Lord commanded the clouds not to rain on the thorny and unfruitful vineyard: "I will command the clouds," he says, "not to rain upon it." I know also a cloud in which God spoke: "In a pillar of cloud," it says, "he spoke to them." And Paul testifies to me that in this cloud not only what is read is to be understood, saying: "Do you not know that our fathers were under the cloud and were baptized into Moses?" This cloud, then, signifies the apostolic teaching, which, overshadowing and defending from the heat, shuts out all the burning of the future judgment. And that they are from the last of the earth, let us hear the apostle saying: "For I think God has displayed us apostles as last, like those born out of due time." The Lord himself, when there was talk about place and rank among the disciples, said: "Whoever wishes to be first among you, let him be last of all." These clouds, then, God, doing all that he wills, brings up from the last of the earth, and the lowly places of the earth breathe out this overshadowing teaching.

"He made lightnings for the rains." Lightning is the recognition of heavenly power, and the Lord himself testifies to this, saying: "For as the lightning comes out of the east and appears even to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." And this indeed is so in the Lord, who will be seen not in places, like bodily things, but coming everywhere. But today, in individuals, whoever will proclaim the power of God, whoever will offer the knowledge of him through teaching, have been made lightnings for rains: first flashing themselves with the lightning of knowledge, then pouring out a shower of words. And Moses, shining not now spiritually through teaching but bodily through glory, recalls this rain to be poured out from himself thus: "Attend, O heaven, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words from my mouth. Let my saying be awaited like rain, and let my words come down like dew, and like rain upon the grass and like snow upon the hay." Those lightnings have been made into these rains: words that give life, water those who drink, and revive what has been dried up by the winter of sins.

The order has been kept, so that after the clouds gathered from the last of the earth, after the lightnings set for rains, he brings forth the winds out of his treasuries. And which winds he brings out of his treasuries is not doubtful: surely those of whom he says: "Making his angels spirits." For there are angels of the little ones who daily see God. These spirits, then, have been sent forth for the salvation of the human race; for our weakness could not withstand so many and such great heavenly spiritual wickednesses unless angels were given for our guard. For this the help of a stronger nature was needed; and that this is so we are taught by the words with which the Lord strengthens Moses, trembling and afraid, saying: "Behold, my angel will go before you." These winds, then, he brings out of his treasuries, so that these divine protections may guard us against the world-rulers of this darkness in inheriting salvation.

Then follows this order of words: "Who struck the firstborn of Egypt, from man to beast, and sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants; who struck many nations and slew mighty kings: Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan he slew; and he gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to Israel his people." The divine word often teaches that he is to be understood as God of heaven and earth and creator of the universe who struck Egypt, divided the sea, drowned the Egyptians, led out his people with great and wonderful powers, fed them with manna in the desert, and, the nations being cast out, brought them into the land of promise. And indeed all these magnificent and splendid works testify that he is God; for it is not of ordinary and moderate power to have done such great things: he is to be understood as admirable in them. But the apostle teaches us, with veneration for the deeds, to recognize in them a prefiguring of spiritual teaching and work, since the law is spiritual, since its deeds are spoken allegorically, since the fathers were under the cloud, since they were baptized into Moses, since they drank from the spiritual rock, since the rock is Christ, since, finally, the Lord was to be lifted up after the pattern of the serpent lifted up in the desert. Although, then, those things were done bodily in Egypt, yet they are now done spiritually in us.

Egypt, in which is the figure of the world, is struck by the powers and plagues of God and terrified by signs and portents. It is struck by the plagues of God when it hears its judgment, when it learns its condemnation, when it is judged daily in the very guilt of its conscience, when the Lord nailed its principal and original powers to his cross. He also spoke as to a living and animate Egypt, so that he might be thought to address not a dull earth and lifeless region but its inhabitants, whom he had made rational and living: "He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants." What is "into your midst"? We learn it from the saying: "But the Lord God, our king, king before the ages, has worked salvation in the midst of the earth." In the middle place of the earth, then, in which the Lord suffered, working salvation for us, he sent signs and wonders, when in the hours of his cross the sun fled, the earth trembled, the rocks split, the tombs opened, the dead rose. These signs were done in your midst, O Egypt. Your Pharaoh, that is, the devil, is killed by the waters when the people is baptized, himself overwhelmed with his army; then many nations were struck, that is, the innumerable settlements of vices in us were extinguished. Mighty kings too were destroyed, mighty indeed.

"Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan he slew." And what is this? So many kingdoms were overthrown, so many kings killed: and is mention made only of these? Mention is indeed made, according to the faithfulness of the deeds, of a few out of many; but only these are mentioned in whom, although the deed done was known, yet through the conditions and force of their names a spiritual condition was woven in. For Sihon means "fruitless tree" (what we call a fruitless tree is called Sihon in Hebrew), and Amorite means "one who embitters." Under the meaning of these names, then, he destroyed the fruitless powers in us who embittered him: the fruitless rulers, namely, who held us, who were embittering the Lord, and who were therefore cut down after the example of the fruitless tree, according to the Gospel saying. King Og means "wall" or "rampart," and Bashan "confusion" or "shame." He extinguished, then, this king of our confusion and shame, loosing, according to the apostle, the wall or rampart, that is, tearing down the obstacle by which we were kept from the knowledge of God. Then he slew all the kingdoms of Canaan. Genesis teaches that Canaan was cursed and was to be the servant of his brothers because of his insulting injury to his father. The name Canaan means "motion." What, then, moved us to vices and cursed impiety and reigned over us by their force and power, the Lord has extinguished. And that sins do not reign in us through the various powers that work in the sons of disobedience, let us hear the apostle saying: "Let sin no longer reign in your mortal body." These kingdoms, then, have been slain; for they no longer rule in us.

But when these were slain, what follows? "He gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to Israel his people." The land of the kings and nations mentioned above was indeed given, but it was lost again. Today it is inhabited by Gentiles; Israel is everywhere an exile: and how is the land that was given an inheritance? The same order remains, then: under what was done bodily, what was to be done spiritually was prefigured. The land of our bodies, then, has been given as an inheritance, which before was cursed in Canaan, prone to vices, in Bashan full of confusion and shame, in the Amorite embittering and provoking, which in Og the wall of unbelief possessed, which in Sihon the fruitless tree had occupied. This land, then, the rampart of unbelief being loosed and the fruitless tree cut out of it, has been given as an inheritance, and given to Israel his people. What this land of inheritance is and who this Israel is, let us hear the apostle Paul saying: "As we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear the image of the heavenly." This is the Israel to whom the inheritance of this blessed land will fall, to whom the possession of his earthly body, glorified together in the Lord, will be eternal. This is proper to Christians who keep this name unharmed in themselves to the end through the image of the heavenly.

And so it says: "O Lord, your name is for ever." Is this to be wished by us for God, or does eternal power need our wish in order to remain for ever? Rather, we should wish that it remain in us; just as when we say, "Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done in heaven and on earth," we certainly do not wish that these things should come to God, that he who is holy should be hallowed, that his will should be done whose deed is in his will. These are rather wishes for our own sake: that through the excellent works of our faith his name may be hallowed in us (for he says: "Be holy, for I am holy"); that his kingdom may come to us, and we may be worthy of the eternal kingdom through the substance of eternity granted us (because to confess his kingdom is the hope of life, and to the thief who said to him, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom," he answered, "Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise"); that, as his will is obeyed in heaven by the untiring heavenly powers, so it may be obeyed by us on earth, lest bodily weakness turn us aside from carrying out his will (for in heaven it is said daily with untiring voices: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory"); so that for us too there may be nothing else in our work but that by which his name is hallowed, nothing else in our hope but that by which we hope his kingdom will come to us, nothing else in our will but that by which eternal praises are to be offered him by us. The fruit of this prayer is a matter of our need: that his name may remain with us for ever.

Then follows: "And your memorial to generation and generation." Not, as often, from age to age, nor from generations to generations, but to generation and generation. And this is said not of the name but of the memorial. The memorial is the remembrance of the works of God contained in the book of the law. And since the law and memorial of God remained in the first generation, that of the Jews, until the fullness of times, just as punishment was postponed for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah until the fullness of sin, so when the first generation had filled up the measure of all impieties, the memorial of God and the remembrance of all his works passed to the other generation, namely to the Christians, with whom today is the veneration of the law and of prophecy and the name of the Lord.

He kept this same order in what follows, saying: "For the Lord will judge his people and be comforted in his servants." To be judged and to be comforted differ, and a people and a servant differ. In the servants is comfort, but in the people judgment. Who does not know that Israel according to the flesh is called the people of God? And it is said by the apostle: "Those who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law." God will judge his people, then; but he will be comforted in his servants, namely those of whom the Lord says: "He who believes in me will not be judged but will pass from death into life; but he who does not believe has already been judged." The Lord, Israel having been judged, will be comforted in his servants. For in all the faithful of the earth he will have comfort for his loss.

For he would have wished his people, whom he had chosen in their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not to be judged: for whose sake he had afflicted Egypt with various plagues, for whose sake he had stood by in the pillar of fire and cloud, for whose sake he had divided the sea, brought water from the rock, sent manna from heaven, given the law, granted pardon for such great sacrileges, cast down so many kingdoms of the irreligious, sent prophets, willed that his only-begotten be born a man. But the people, ungrateful for so many and such great benefits, and the first-chosen tenant of the vineyard, laid murderous hands on the very Lord of the vineyard, putting to death, so far as lay in them, God crucified in man. But servants were chosen, to whom the vineyard would be handed over as they rendered its fruit, in whom the Lord, his people having been judged, might be comforted for the loss of his kindness. So the nations comfort him in their martyrs, confessors, and faithful, paying back from themselves the fruits of the grace entrusted to them. This voice is not new, nor is it this prophet's alone. Moses, in that splendid song of Deuteronomy, when he was proclaiming the sins and last impieties of this people and the faith of another generation, says: "For the Lord will judge his people and be comforted in his servants." Holy Eleazar too, when he was being forced by the rulers of his people to taste a feigned sacrifice, consummates the glory of martyrdom under this same voice, knowing that the Lord, his people having been judged, would be comforted in his servants who do his will.

Then with prophetic speech he turns to driving out the error of the Gentiles, refuting their foolish and irreligious superstitions from the very causes of the superstitions, saying: "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have a mouth and will not speak; they have eyes and will not see; they have ears and will not hear; they have nostrils and will not smell; they have hands and will not feel; they have feet and will not walk; they will not cry out with their throat, nor is there breath in their mouth. Let those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them." The same thing is often said in other psalms too about the idols of the nations; and all prophecy labors to turn human error away from these most foolish pursuits of irreligion. For many add authority to these impieties of theirs, seeking honor for the gods they have made for themselves by the value of the metals, forming them of gold and silver; but they bestow only what they can, namely the image of a mouth, eyes, ears, nostrils, hands, and feet, worshipping their gods in the form of a dead body, whose mouth, the spirit having flown, is mute, the eyes dull, the ears deaf, the nostrils lifeless, the hands slack, the feet stiff, the whole body motionless. But what they do not dare to hope is assigned to their error: that they should be like those they adore, the worshippers in fellowship with the worshipped, themselves to be left, like the idols, dead bodies without the breath of life.

Having shown the Gentile error, the prophetic speech returned to the order of teaching, saying: "House of Israel, bless the Lord; house of Aaron, bless the Lord; house of Levi, bless the Lord; you who fear the Lord, bless him." In these distinctions of names and offices he has embraced the whole people of the church, but through the meaning of the names and their proper senses he has divided the merits of the offices themselves. For in saying "house of Israel" and "house of Aaron" and "house of Levi" and "you who fear the Lord," one is distinguished from another, just as the apostle, writing to the Corinthians, makes a certain distinction in names when he says: "to the called, to the saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," signifying that the called are one thing, the saints another, those who call on the name of the Lord another. Now we see Israel named first, Aaron second, Levi third, those who fear the Lord fourth. And there is no doubt that the priests are signified in Aaron: for Aaron was the first priest in the law, and from then on the honor of priests remained in his succession. In Levi the ministers are plainly shown: for this tribe was chosen for the ministry. The rest of the people, whose duty is not priesthood or ministry but fear, is named in "those who fear the Lord." But the apostle teaches us that Israel is above all these, when he says: "And as many as follow this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." The rule of their office holds the priests and ministers in what they do; but it is far better to do something by will than by law. And the best thing is, through the order of ministry, not only to satisfy the ministry but, through the knowledge of teaching and the warmth of faith, to strive toward the knowledge and contemplation of God. He placed, then, in the first rank of those who bless, him who would understand and see God, which is proper to Israel, and who would excel the office in which he was and the honor of the priest by this very power of God known by faith and contemplated: because, although there are many Aarons, that is, priests, few Israels, that is, those who will contemplate God with the knowledge of the mind, will be found. These, then, are called first to bless, the others after them to bless in the office in which they themselves are. But the house of Israel, the house of Aaron, the house of Levi, and all who fear the Lord bless God: him, namely, who is the blessed God out of Zion, who dwells in Jerusalem, the holy mount Zion and heavenly city, the church of the firstborn, abiding and enrolled in heaven, in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever and ever. Amen.